From A-ha to ZZ-Top: This blog lists all (or at least most) of the live gigs and events I have been to from 1983 til now!

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Jean-Michel Jarre – Electronica Tour

08.10.2016
Barclaycard Arena Birmingham

It isn’t the norm
that a gig is stunning sound-wise (first class sound) and visually (the
lighting effects were out of this world) and when you add an artist that has
been around for 4 decades and doesn’t write sub-par material EVER (in my humble
opinion) then what you have is a perfect night out.

And that is
exactly what that was – a perfect night out, a perfect concert, genius level.

‘Electronica’ and ‘Electronica
2’, Jean-Michel Jarre’s last two albums, underline the fact that he is one of
the godfathers of electronic music and that he has inspired millions of
musicians around the globe and that the world’s best feel honoured and humbled
to be on an album with him.

The Electronica albums impressively show his
versatility and clear timelessness in his approach to music.

68 years old
Jean-Michel proofed a tour de force on stage and said that he is very happy to
have started his tour in the UK and that the UK is his second home ‘with or
without Brexit’.

Having recorded
with the crème de la crème of the electronic music scene on the two Electronica
albums, he performs very early into the show his collaboration with Erasure’s
Vince Clarke and plays the track he recorded with the Pet Shop Boys a little
later in the show as well as performing ‘Exit’, a collaboration with Edward
Snowdon, who can be seen on a massive video screen.

In fact, there were
numerous video screens that could be combined to create a stage-wide canvas and
there wasn’t a moment in the show (that unfortunately is less than two hours
long) where the visual senses weren’t awed.

The real
highlights of the show undoubtedly were the tracks from the ‘Equinoxe’ and ‘Oxygen’
albums and even more amazingly December 2nd marks ‘Oxygene’s 40th
anniversary and a brand-new album ‘Oxygene 3’ will be released on December 2nd
2016.

We were very
fortunate that a brand-new song from the album, namely ‘Oxygen 17’ was performed
by Jean-Michel and his two stage musicians, who added some synths and a hell of
a lot of drums and percussion to proceedings.

What was interesting
about the Jarre gig was that nothing felt ‘retro’ or dated and out of place or
out of touch.

And, luckily, his
laser harp, long a trademark of his, did work as well.

The audience could
have been a bit wilder and Jarre himself asked security to relax a little and
to allow people to get up and dance.

From where I was
sitting it felt that ‘Oxygene Pt. 4’ was the most appreciated track of the
evening. That said, the crowd clearly loved what they heard and saw and showed
their appreciation.